Reflective Experience on Health Assessment

Introduction
I am going to critically reflect my experience I gained from this semester especially,
regarding health assessment. Health assessment is the initial stage before formulating any
nursing care plan and thus it plays one of the major roles in the treatment of any patient. It is
a fundamental element in nursing practice and here in this paper, I will describe my
experience on specific aspects of health assessment. Since, I will be using Gibbs’ Reflective
Cycle, so I will share my feelings along with a clear evaluation and analysis of the situation
(Li & Peng, 2018). At the end of the paper I will jot down the main learning from this
semester with an action plan for my career.
Description
The ANSAT tool is familiar to all nursing students which stand for Australian
Nursing Standards Assessment Tool and being a nursing student I also think it is a user-
friendly assessment tool used in assessing patients’ health. In order to assess the consistency
of the nurses, the tool plays a significant role (Jefferies et al., 2018). In order to address the
NMBA nursing conducts of comprehensively conduct assessment domain, health assessment
is highly essential (Katikireddi et al., 2018). During the whole semester I learnt specific
aspects of health assessment such as assessing TPR, BP and taking health interview. Among
all these aspects, assessing the BP and TPR seemed to be more interesting and difficult. I
assessed BP and TPR of many people as a part of my practical learning. However, I was
constantly working under the supervision of my mentor, I had to note the assessed data
thoroughly as the further treatment is dependent on the accuracy of assessment.
Feelings

Prior to the assessment I was nervous as it was my first ever application of medical
equipments upon the patients. But, while working, I realized integrating the techniques I
learned in the classroom regarding assessment is quite helpful. A lot of things were going
behind my mind and I was thinking how everything can be put together to have a better
health outcome. However, learning from this semester helped me to understand the
importance of critical thinking in nursing practice to provide holistic care to the patients.
Coming to the end, I can say, I am now enriched with knowledge and experience which
increased my confidence level as well.
Evaluation
On evaluation, this semester opened up opportunities to learn new things and gain
practical experience. Initially, due to nervousness, I was not able to measure the BP
accurately and was making mistakes. However, later on, my mentor explained me the need of
concentration in this task. I realized, patience and concentration is extremely effective in
getting an accurate outcome after assessing the patient (Maestre & Rudolph, 2015). The
experience I gained from this semester helped me to learn the process of working as a nursing
practitioner in the professional field. I also learned assessing techniques may vary according
to the condition of the patients and in order to get cooperation from the patients, it is
important to establish a friendly relationship between nurses and patients (Johnson & May,
2015).
Analysis
Upon analysing the whole semester I realized working under my mentor is quite
comfortable and enjoyable as I got constant support while learning. Assessing health is
challenging as its accuracy is highly important for further treatment. Learning from this
semester helped me to think critically and make valid clinical reasoning. However, at many